Dogbolter

An immensely strong and flavoursome beer from Bruce's Brewery, the brewery who used to run and supply the Firkin pub chain in Britain. They've been taken over by whatever that conglomerate calls itself this week, Allied Global Carlsberg or something, so I don't know whether Dogbolter even exists any more. The ruin of many a healthy young body.

It's 5.6% alcohol, at least, and as all Bruce's beers are/brewed on the premises or at least shipped over from brewing in nearby premises, it could very quite a bit up from that. In a beer, 5.6% is about the strongest it's possible to make it and still drink it as a pump beer (as opposed to a liqueur, or a bottled beer).

It comes from a mistake in something unimaginably stronger. David Bruce was trying to create a batch of Earthstopper, a brain-killing 7.5%, when the phone rang. It took longer than he expected, and by the time he got down to the cellar the Earthstopper had gone too far. He rescued the weaker remnants and decided to call it Dogbolter.

This was a traditional name in his family, derived from a story of an uncle in Yorkshire who'd brewed something equally potent for some friends. In attempting to walk home, with their dogs, they'd stumbled into a ditch by some fields, and their unearthly shrieks had caused their dogs to bolt.